144 
This region, which includes Kwangtung and Kwongsi pro- 
vinces (from whence most of the Chinese in Hawaii come), is 
an important agricultural area. With ideal climate, soil and 
water resources, together with a dense and unusually industrious 
population, no other part of the world supports a greater num- 
ber of souls from its soil as does this part of southern China. 
Lying in the same degree of latitude as Hawaii, most of the 
crops grown here are to be found there. Among these the most 
important is rice, which is the great staple of the region. The 
quality of this product is considered the best grown in China, 
but the production does not fully supply the neieds of the popula- 
tion, in consequence of which its exportation is prohibited by the 
government. Soy beans and other members of the pulse family 
are extensively grown. These form an important article of 
diet, the Chinese evidently appreciating the value of nitrogenous 
food in connection with the more starchy cereal rice ; millets, 
sweet potatoes, taro, peanuts, tea, sesame seed, Indian corn, to- 
bacco, mulberries (with silk products), matting sedges, ramie 
and cotton. Many kinds of tropical and semi-tropical fruits also 
thrive there. Sugar cane is grown to a slight extent, and does 
well in many localities. With modern cultural methods and 
greater enterprise this crop could doubtless be developed into an 
important industry. Poultry and swine are the principal live 
stock. A small neat milch cow is occasionally met with, but beef 
cattle and horses are rare. Such agricultural work, as is not 
performed by hand labor, is usually done with the aid of water- 
bufifalo, as is still common in the paddy fields in some parts of 
Hawaii. 
Having letters to Professor Y. H. Tong, the noted rice expert 
and director of the recently established Canton Provincial Ex- 
periment Station and College of Agriculture, I called at that in- 
stitution, but found that he was absent in Pekin, where the Chin- 
ese Government is about to establish a similar institution. I 
met, however, Dr. Y. Li, the chemist, who is a graduate of an 
English university, and was shown about the Station by him. 
The Station, although established only a year, has made a^good 
beginning, and I was well repaid by several visits. Comparative- 
ly little has been done as yet on rice, but the cotton plats were at 
their best. Some ten varieties, consisting of American Upland 
and native cottons, are being grown according to American 
methods. While well cared for, the plants of none of the varie- 
ties compared with those of our growing. Not only were they 
undersized, but the quality of the fibre and the yields were very 
poor. T examined all the varieties critically many times and 
should feel very much discouraged if our experiments gave no 
better results than those obtained there. That the season was 
fairly normal was indicated by the thrifty growth of other crops, 
such as sugar cane, mulberries and vegetables. After studying 
the cotton conditions at Shanghai and throughout central and 
